1. Field
The following invention disclosure is generally concerned with cereal food products and specifically concerned with cereals having a coating of milk or milk-like material on the exterior.
2. Prior Art
One need not go further than the breakfast table to discover the state of the art. Sugar frosted flakes and Mueslix or similar cereals may be found in the cupboards of most American homes. These cereal products are representative of the latest in breakfast technologies and trends.
A sophisticated publication, "Food Products Design" published by Weeks Publishing Company of Northbrook Illinois illustrates well the great efforts applied to advancing food product technologies in general and breakfast products specifically. In particular, the April 1998 issue directed primarily to "Building Better Breakfast Cereals" sets forth the benchmark and state of the art.
Additionally, the July 1995 issue of the same journal presents a very comprehensive presentation relative to creating breakfast cereals. Specifically, a good discussion given relates to coating processes including sugar surface coatings.
Still further, the June 1997 issue of the same publication teaches new techniques relating to cereals. Attention is directed to the section titled "Sweet awakenings" where discussion relating to surface application of sugars which enhance not only taste, but also improve functionality of the cereal pieces. Description of applying honey in a liquid state is also included in the article.
Still further the discussion includes application of flavorings to the surfaces of cereal pieces. Further, the article teaches how colorants may be applied to coatings.
However, neither of these leading teachings present a case nor suggestion for how milk may be applied to surfaces of cereal pieces.
Kraft, a leading food products manufacture publishes and distributes a guide to uses and applications of milk and milk alternate products. A matrix of products and uses appears as tables titled "Multi purpose Non-Fat Dry Milk Alternates" and "Specialty Non-Fat Dry Milk Alternates". This teaching suggests uses for dry milk products in foods including at least: cakes, sauces, gravies, pies, donuts, breads, cream pies, icings, rolls, yeast raised products, buttermilk flavor bread, pancake mixes, confections, compound coatings for candies, cookies, cream filling for candies, granulated potato products, flow agent for mixes, high fat level products, among others. However, these milk products are in no way associated with cereals and the production of cereal products.
An excellent presentation relating to milk and milk products and their advanced uses is contained in Food Product Design, January 1998. Although the people at Food Products Design represent leading experts in the cereal product design as evidenced by their well recognized and leading contributions to that field mentioned previously, the article fails to draw any connection to uses of milk and milk products in cereals as will be discussed in detail in the disclosure herefollowing.
It is an old practice to use powdered milk having a long shelf life to make milk in a liquid form. By adding water to a powdered formulation and applying agitation, one can quickly make milk in liquid form. This has the advantage of taking milk to locations which do not support storage of fresh milk; for example, on remote camping sites.
Milk in powdered form has been combined with other food products to create a "just add water" process for reconstitution of the food. Powdered chocolate milk is a quite popular drink whereby chocolate is combined with powdered milk. On introduction of water, the chocolate and milk form a liquid drink having milk in liquid form.
While the systems and inventions of the prior art are designed to achieve particular goals and objectives, some of those being no less than remarkable, these inventions have limitations which prevent their use in new ways now possible. These prior art inventions are not used and cannot be used to realize the advantages and objectives of the present invention.
It should be understood that all of the herein referenced materials provide considerable definition of some elements of the present invention. Therefore, those materials are incorporated herein by reference whereby the instant specification can rely upon them for enablement of the particular teachings of each.